Table 2: Virological response during treatment and at the end of followup.

Virological Response

Overall()

Group I: peg-IFN α-2a 180 μg/week plus ribavirin ()

Group II: peg-IFN α-2a 135 μg/week plus ribavirin ()

Group III: peg-IFN α-2a 90 μg/week plus ribavirin ()

P value

EVR, no./total (%)*

149/172 (86.7)

54/59 (91.5)

45/51 (88.2)

50/62 (82.3)

0.197

Complete

130/172 (75.6)

49/59 (83.1)

41/51 (80.4)

40/62 (64.5)

0.038

Partial

19/172 (11.0)

5/59 (8.5)

4/51 (7.8)

10/62 (16.1)

0.278

ETR, no./total (%)

202/243 (83.1)

73/87 (83.9)

53/63 (84.1)

76/93 (81.7)

0.899

SVR, no./total (%)

165/243 (67.9)

60/87 (68.9)

43/63 (68.3)

62/93 (66.7)

0.945

1b

73/130 (56.2)

29/50 (58.0)

18/32 (56.3)

26/48 (54.2)

0.877

2/3

66/80 (82.5)

21/25 (84.0)

17/21 (81.0)

28/34 (82.4)

0.964

6a

26/33 (78.8)

10/12 (83.3)

8/10 (80%)

8/11 (72.7)

0.819

SVR by diagnosis, no./total (%)

Chronic hepatitis

130/177 (73.4)

50/66 (75.8)

33/45 (73.3)

47/66 (71.2)

0.839

Cirrhosis

35/66 (53.0)

10/21 (47.6)

10/18 (55.6)

15/27 (58.1)

0.834

SVR by baseline HCV RNA, no. /total (%)

<600,000 IU/mL

87/118 (73.7)

29/40 (72.5)

20/28 (71.4)

38/50 (76.0)

0.887

≥600,000 IU/mL

78/125 (62.4)

31/47 (66.0)

23/35 (65.7)

24/43 (55.8)

0.545

Notes. *Among the 243 patients who completed the proposed duration of antiviral therapy with peg-IFN α-2a plus ribavirin and had at least 24 weeks followup period after the end of treatment, only 172 patients were tested HCV RNA level at week 12 of treatment, among these 172 patients, 149 patients achieved RVR. P value was given by 2 × 3 chi-square test comparing the three different peg-IFN α-2a dose groups. EVR: early virological response. ETR: end-of-treatment response. SVR: sustained virologic response.